SIX DEAD AS U.S TRAIN DERAILED

Carriages catapulted on to motorway in crash

flaws. Local Mayor Don Anderson said the trains were dangerously close to cars and pedestrians.

He told transport officials: “Come back when there is that accident, and try to justify not putting in those safety enhance- ments, or you can go back now and advocate for the money to do it, because this project was never needed and endangers our citizens.”

Some reports said the Amtrak train smashed into a truck.

Many local dignitaries were onboard. Passenger Chris Karnes, and chairman of the local Transit advisory board, said: “We were reaching sort of a bend in the tracks, and all of a sudden, we were slammed into the seats in front of us.

“We felt this rocking and creaking noise, and it felt like we were heading down a hill.

“And then the car careered down an embankment. Windows are breaking, we stop, and there’s water gushing out of the train.

“People were screaming. There was massive damage.”

Mr Karnes was live tweeting as the train passed traffic on the road below.

He wrote: “Wow this train is fast. Once you leave Downtown Tacoma it’s 79 mph to Portland. We are passing traffic on I-5. Tacoma to Dupont in roughly 15 minutes.

“The train hit a truck apparently. I am fine, but the train is destroyed.”

There were 78 passengers and five crew members onboard.